Gilles Bouchard

Gilles history with CMT dates back to 2001, when his son Yohan was diagnosed with CMT1A. He has been involved as a volunteer advisor to the Board since 2007, when he organized the strategic retreat in Palo Alto where the STAR (Strategy to Accelerate Research) program was initially defined and launched. Like so many of us, Gilles has been excited and delighted to see how fast the STAR program has progressed since then. Yet, with such hope comes a growing sense of responsibility to the 3 million people affected by CMT. This is why Gilles agreed to join the Board of the CMTA and assume the position of chairman in March 2016.

On the professional side, most recently Gilles was chairman and CEO for Livescribe, a venture-backed company that is the leader in the smartpen market. Previously, he was the CEO of Opnext, a maker of fiber optic components. The majority of his career (17 years) was at Hewlett-Packard, working his way up to executive vice president of Global Operations and CIO, reporting directly to CEOs Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd. He holds an MS in engineering from UC Berkeley and an executive education degree from Harvard Business School.

He was born in France, grew up in the Alps, and loves cycling, mountaineering and skiing. Yohan also introduced him to horseback riding so he is an aspiring cowboy now!